Paolo Porelli and Lori-Ann Touchette are the directors C.R.E.T.A. Rome, an international ceramics residency, teaching and exhibition program.

Porelli will lecture on his artwork, which focuses on the evocative capacity of sculpture, mythological images that provide access to an archetypal dimension of reality. They seek to give form to an interpretation of critical behaviors of contemporary man. The sculptures serve as sentinel figures that represent the condensation of a visual language contaminated by surrealist solutions, pop proliferations, and archaic symbolism.

Touchette will discuss "Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture in Italy" starting from two recent exhibitions in Rome and Faenza. Her lecture will present a survey of ceramic sculpture in Italy from the post-war period to the present day.